A 2010 poll commissioned by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada found that two-thirds of Canadians had tried losing weight in the past 5 years. Whether it was by eliminating food groups, using meal-replacement bars and shakes, trying out weight-loss supplements, or fasting — only 17% of those who were overweight and 8% of those who were obese managed to lose at least five pounds and keep that weight off for a five-year period. That’s a pretty terrible margin to spend so much of our lives force-feeding ourselves weird non-foods or restricting to the point of hunger and irritability.
Unfortunately, with the way thinness and weight loss are centred in society, it’s understandable so many of us get lured into believing counting almonds, eating 100-calorie snack packs, or cutting out whole food groups is the way we’ll achieve health and happiness.
If you’ve ever put yourself through the roller coaster of dieting, you are not alone. In fact, you’re with the majority of the population. But just because it’s what most people are doing and it’s what you’ve gotten used to, it doesn’t mean you have to keep doing it. Here’s to giving up all the sh*tty things diets make us do like…
1. Being deserving of a Masters in Mathematics for all the calorie and/or macro-counting you do
Oh calorie counting. Just think of all the useful things your brain could spend time doing if it wasn’t busy comparing and contrasting the calorie content of half a dozen granola bars. You could likely have written several books, learned Japanese and watched every season of Doctor Who (#timewellspent).
Calorie counting has been touted for a long time, but ultimately, the evidence is showing it is nearly impossible for humans to maintain caloric restriction and, ultimately, weight loss. Research is even indicating our bodies will actively attempt to, and usually succeed at, returning to our pre-existing weight.
Diets don’t just stop at calorie counting though, there’s also macro-counting. Hot damn is that an intense mathematical process you have to do on a constant basis. If you’ve ever macro-counted for an extended period of time, please let me know. I want you to do my taxes. My accountant’s got nothing on you.
2. Eating things that should in no way be construed as food
Companies love coming out with products you “need” in order to lose weight and become the happy, smiling people you see in the “after” pictures. Instead of actually eating whole foods that nourish your body, when you need them, and to your unique hunger cues, you’re encouraged to ignore everything your body is telling you, and to stick to a strict diet of non-foods.
Take the Slim Fast diet for example. In it you get two shakes or smoothies for two meals, three 100-calorie snack packs, and then one 500-calorie meal (because even on a product-based diet plan you’ve got to keep counting calories!) Now what’s in these tasty shakes that you get to have for breakfast and lunch every day for as long as you’re on the diet? Well, in their creamy chocolate shake we have…
INGREDIENTS: WATER, CALCIUM CASEINATE, MILK PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, CANOLA OIL, COCOA (PROCESSED WTH ALKALI), MALTODEXTRIN, CELLULOSE GEL, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS, POTASSIUM PHOSPHATE, MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, GLYCERIN, POTASSIUM CITRATE, SALT, SOY LECITHIN, SUCRALOSE, CARAGEENAN, SODIUM CITRATE, CITRIC ACID, CARAMEL COLOR. VITAMINS AND MINERALS: MAGNESIUM PHOSPHATE, SODIUM ASCORBATE, CALCIUM PHOSPHATE, VITAMIN E ACETATE, ZINC GLUCONATE, FERRIC ORTHOPHOSPHATE, NIACINAMIDE, CALCIUM PANTOTHENATE, MANGANESE SULFATE, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE, THIAMINE MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, CHROMIUM CHLORIDE, FOLIC ACID, BIOTIN, SODIUM MOLYBDATE, POTASSIUM IODIDE, PHYLLOQUINONE, SODIUM SELENITE, CYANOCOBALAMIN, CHOLECALCIFEROL.
Mmm… sounds delicious! Pour me a glass of that. But not two. I’m slimmin’. Fast.
3. Eating the same thing until you want to puke and/or murder the person who invented that thing
Okay, so maybe you forgo the whole processed “food” diet and instead go the whole foods route. There are plenty of diets to choose from. Cabbage soup multiple times a day? Or how about lemon juice, water, maple syrup and cayenne pepper? Yeah, cause you’re a hummingbird. You can live off that sh*t.
You go into it all high on the excitement of the weight loss that’s sure to come and the clarity of knowing what you “can” and “can’t” eat. But then, whether it’s after 3 days or 2 weeks, you eventually realize whatever you’re eating isn’t “actually really enjoyable” as you so adamantly declared on the first day, you realize you can’t possibly stomach another ounce of the stuff and you end up like this.
This reaction is completely understandable when you take into account research is beginning to suggest that restriction increases the attention, reward and motivation regions of our brains in response to food. Meaning, when restricting, our brains start lighting up like fireworks displays on the long weekend whenever food is around. This makes it pretty hard to continue restricting when food is all you can think about.
4. Cutting out whole food groups for virtually no reason
Once you’ve graduated through all the fad diets and experienced how exhausting and ineffective they are, it’s pretty easy to get sucked into the diets in disguise realm. These are the diets that claim to be just about health but, given that they’re often cutting out or greatly limiting whole food groups or macronutrients, it’s easy for the diet-brain to take over.
Pick up one book: gluten is killing you. The next: it’s fat. Another: it’s sugar. What is with all these foods and macronutrients trying to destroy the human race? The truth is, they’re not. Yes, there may be foods you’re genuinely sensitive or allergic to, and if that’s the case, taking a short break from them and potentially noticing you no longer have ongoing cramps, bloating, or other symptoms will make not eating them pretty easy. No restrictive diet required.
But if it’s just the latest health craze getting in your brain and making you think you have to cut something out even though you’re not entirely sure why and you don’t feel all that different with or without it, it’s only going to continue damaging your relationship with food and your body. Cutting out or restricting certain foods is a particularly fruitless endeavour because research is beginning to show what many of us have experienced for ourselves when dieting — when we cut out certain foods, we can’t stop thinking about them, and ultimately, we end up actually eating more of those foods.
Giving up diets
I think we all know that other than maybe the first couple days of a diet when we’re on the high of this new life we feel we’re building for ourselves, diets are a pretty sh*tty experience. Chronic dieting is associated with disordered eating attitudes, depression and lower self-esteem. Not only that, but for the majority of people diets simply don’t work. Conservative estimates show that 1/3 to 2/3 of dieters regain more weight than what they lost.
So diets don’t work, now what? Well for one, let’s have a good laugh about all the crazy things we did in the name of dieting. They may not have been particularly helpful, but we lived and learned. Next, we can begin to accept that based on the research, dieting simply does not work for long-term weight loss.
Instead of dieting we can take care of our health and well-being in a more gentle way by learning to eat whole, nourishing foods that make us feel great because we want to, not because we have to. If a particular food seems to be a problem for us, we can take a break from it from a place of curiosity rather than restriction and see its effects for ourselves.
If you’re focusing on weight loss for your health, it’s important to note that it has been shown health markers improve by eating more healthful foods and engaging in more movement, regardless of weight loss. Experiment with what healthful foods you can ADD to your life rather than restrict. What fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and grains do you genuinely enjoy? What kinds of exercise and movement do you actually look forward to?
Let’s quit focusing on the external — what diets are telling us to do — and focus more on the internal — what works for our own unique tastes and needs. A little bit of science and a lot of self-understanding will get you to feeling your best in a way that no restrictive diet ever can.
If you’ve spent a long time in the world of dieting, understanding and responding to your body’s natural cues may not feel easy. That’s okay. Shoot me a message to book a FREE 20-minute consultation.
Everything you have said is absolutely true. I don’t need to consult my physician. I have learned to eat so I am not hungry I don’t eat to be full. There is quite a difference. I will take a piece of homemade bread, toast it, cut it in four. I then eat 1 piece every hour. It works for me.